It is not the first time it has happened, nor the second, nor the third, nor the fourth, and of course, it won’t be the last. In fact, it practically happens every week. For example, it happened to Mario Galiano in Egypt, for the season debut of the Alps Tour. Well, the latest victim has been Jorge Campillo. The Extremaduran is in Kenya less than 24 hours before the start of the DP World Tour tournament without his golf bag. He flew from Madrid to Nairobi, arrived yesterday at half-past nine in the evening, and his golf bag did not appear on the luggage carousel…
Shortly after landing in Africa, he received an email from the company informing him that the bag would arrive in Kenya at a quarter past midnight on a flight from Qatar. An encouraging piece of information. It’s not the most pleasant situation in the world when you’ve just landed from a trip that is not exactly a walk in the park, but worse things have happened. Jorge decided to stay and wait at the airport. Three very pleasant hours…
As you can imagine, the Qatar flight landed on time in Nairobi, but there was no news of the clubs. A long wait at the airport for nothing. Campillo went to the hotel, where, by the way, his reservation was also missing, at two in the morning, very pleasant, although he eventually sorted it out. Today he went to the Muthaiga Golf Club to play the Pro Am and prepare for the tournament that starts tomorrow, Thursday. With 24 hours to go, his bag has not appeared, and he has had to improvise. In Kenya, the brand trucks are not available, and from a material point of view, there is only the bare minimum. It’s not like he can ask for his clubs to be replicated on the spot. Basically, he has been borrowing here and there…
The first thing he was lent were some irons. A local player from Muthaiga. They are Mizuno, good clubs, although the shaft, Campillo confesses to Ten Golf, is “a 300 S, amateur, very soft, a drama,” he says with a touch of humour. The driver was lent by Andrea Pavan, the people from Callaway, his brand, were able to provide the 3-wood, a hybrid, and two wedges of 50 and 58 degrees, the 3-iron is from Sebas García, and the 4-iron, courtesy of Ángel Ayora. “I’ve been collecting clubs as best I can,” he notes. A true Frankenstein bag. Oh, and he has two putters, one from Benjamin Hebert and another from Iona Stephen, a television interviewer. The balls, to complete the welcome pack, are from Joel Moscatel.
Campillo is set to play the first round of the Magical Kenya Open tomorrow at 13:10. That’s the window he has for his clubs to arrive. In principle, there should be no problems. They swear up and down that they are already at the airport and that he will be able to use them tomorrow, but they also said they would arrive on the Qatar flight… Fingers crossed.
